“As you know last month my wife’s ethnicity was attacked by a left-wing group in Kentucky and then apparently they also bugged my headquarters,” McConnell said. “So I think that pretty much sums up the way the political left is operating in Kentucky.”

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McConnell fundraising off of bugging - Mike Allen reports

Mitch McConnell ad: Wife plays starring role

McConnell (R-Ky.) was referring to Twitter posts by the group Progress Kentucky, which said his wife Elaine Chao, who was the former Labor secretary and born in Taiwan, claimed she shipped jobs to China and asked if the Senate minority leader was “too close to China.”

McConnell’s office has asked the FBI to investigate the recording. There is no public evidence that Progress Kentucky bugged McConnell’s Louisville office, but the couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

McConnell’s office quickly walked back his accusation, saying it wasn’t an accusation of Progress Kentucky.

“He was talking about the left in general, not specifically Progress Kentucky,” a McConnell aide said. “He was talking about the left in general.”

His campaign said they’re not saying who was behind the bugging.

“We’ll let the FBI determine who did the bugging,” campaign manager Jesse Benton said. “We’re not walking back anything. He was referring the collective left.”

Asked twice about the content of the conversation in which staffers were talking about how they would attack Judd for discussing bouts of mental depression, McConnell refused to respond. McConnell was present for at least some portion of the conversation.

“As I indicated, last month they were attacking my wife’s ethnicity and then apparently unbeknownst to us at the time they were bugging our headquarters in a Nixonian move,” McConnell said, when asked directly if it was an acceptable line of attack against a potential opponent to go after emotional instability. “This is what you get from the political left in America these days.”